STATE ROUTE 135
The Former Nansemond Ordnance Depot ("FNOD") is located in Suffolk, Virginia, near the northwestern end of State Route 135. Use and ownership of the property prior to 1917 is not known. Local historians claim, however, that the Confederate States of America maintained an artillery battery, referred to as "Pig Point", on the property during the Civil War in order to protect the entrance to the Nansemond River. The property was obtained by the United States Department of Army between 1917 and 1929 and was known as Pig Point Ordnance Depot. During World War I, the facility was used for munitions storage, shipment, classification, and destruction, handling up to 1300 tons of ammunition daily. In 1929, the name of the facility was changed from Pig Point Ordnance Depot to Nansemond Ordnance Depot. During World War II, the facility supported operations at the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, including storage and transshipment of all types of ammunition overseas. It also received captured enemy munitions for processing and further shipment to other U.S. military facilities. Toward the end of the war, it was used as a distribution depot, and performed reconditioning and loading of ammunition. In April 1945, the Depot was in demobilization, including the destruction of unserviceable explosives, ammunition, and chemicals. In November 1950, the facility was transferred to the Department of the Navy, then known as the Marine Corps Supply Forwarding Annex. In June 1960, the facility was declared excess by the Federal government. Of the original 975.3 acres, 5.87 acres were being used at that time by the State for road right-of-way. The remaining government property was conveyed to the Beazley Foundation Boys Academy, which operated a private boy’s military academy there until 1968. The Beazley Foundation conveyed portions of the site to Virginia Electric Power Company in 1960, General Electric Company ("GE") in 1965, and the former County of Nansemond for road right-of-way in 1966. In 1968, Beazley Foundation ceased operations and donated the remaining property to the Virginia Department of Community Colleges, which used it for the Frederick Campus of Tidewater Community College. VDCC later conveyed one portion of the property to the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and allowed another portion to be used for the construction of Interstate 664. The Frederick Campus of Tidewater Community College was closed in 2013 and relocated to downtown Portsmouth, Va. The property acquired by GE in 1965 included an existing military building, which was modified by GE in 1966, doubling its size. This modified building was utilized by GE as a television assembly plant. GE also added a finished goods warehouse onto this building in the early 1970s. GE eventually acquired a total of about 134 acres of the former Nansemond Ordnance Depot. GE operated a television assembly plant at this location until approximately 1988. Of the 207 acres deeded to Virginia Electric Power Company (now known as Dominion Power) by the Beazley Foundation in 1960, Dominion Power plans to develop 135 acres and adjacent property into an industrial/commercial park called Bridgeway Commerce Park. In addition, the City of Suffolk plans to acquire a portion of TCC property for the purpose of developing a commercial area called the Hampton Roads Technology Park on 158 acres in the eastern portion of the former NOD. This latter complex would be constructed along both sides of I-664 and contain office and research and development space, a high-technology workforce development center, hotels and corporate/conference centers, a restaurant, and a day care facility.
1,274 |
People living within a 1 mile radius |
$95,010 |
Average Income |
525 |
Occupied homes |
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